This invention relates generally to the installation of electrical connectors on printed circuit boards and, more particularly, to delivery of connectors to a location where they can be picked up by a robot and installed on a printed circuit board.
Semiautomatic systems which dispense different connectors and indicate to an assembler where each is to be placed on a circuit board have been disclosed by Kurek et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,166 and by Knuth et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,615. With such systems, the assembler must handle each connector, place it at the correct location and install it. The different connectors are supplied in tubes, each of which must be replaced when empty. Thus, the dispensers disclosed by Kurek et al. and Knuth et al. cannot be used in any fully automated system for dispensing and installing electrical connectors.